In the spirit of the holidays, we recently watched What Would Jesus Buy?, producer Morgan Spurlock’s 
follow-up to his the wildly successful Supersize Me. The documentary examines the commercialization of Christmas in America while following Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse (the end of America from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt). It’s a unique angle on a subject that Americans dearly need to hear.
But had the film stayed on subject, I might have stayed with the film. Instead, it descends into a rant against Walmart and free-market systems, on the coattails of a rather obnoxious, faux preacher.
We follow Reverend Billy, a performance artist in full-tilt parody of an evangelical minister, as he traverses upscale neighborhoods with his choir, singing mock Christmas songs that decry materialism, to obviously well-off, and somewhat befuddled, audiences. But Reverend Billy proves to be one of the film’s downfalls. His intentions may be well-placed, but his methods undermine his message. After a while, I wanted Billy to stop hamming it up for the camera and tell us his real motivations. But that comes soon enough.
Within 45-minutes, Billy’s Choir is on the doorstep of a Walmart — the very gates of hell.
Here we go again. 
Walmart, purveyor of all evil, destroyer of small businesses, sweatshop subsidizer, employee abuser, Mammon incarnate. Ho hum.
There’s an obvious dynamic that undermines the message of What Would Jesus Buy? It’s this: Someone must buy the product to get its message. I mean, we rented the film at Netflix. Interestingly enough, on the WWJB website, they list all the retail outlets where you can purchase the DVD. Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Borders, Barnes and Nobles, Netflix, Virgin Megastores… Yikes! Are we to assume that Jesus would cough up the $11.99 at Virgin Megastore to buy something about… not buying things? Heck, think how many loaves and fishes He can get with that.
No doubt, the message about consumerism at Christimas is a vital, vital message. The problem with WWJB is two-fold: Not only is its protagonist so downright loopy (and, by the way, one who can be seen using a Mac on camera at one point), its message is convoluted. Yeah, I need to ease my spending. So I think I’ll start by not buying this DVD.
I agree that Reverend Billy is overbearing. I was actually quite disturbed when they were singing Christmas carols to rich people about their bratty kids and the SUV’s they drove, as if they had made terrible decisions all their life. Reverend Billy believes an intervention is necessary and that he must take drastic measures. I may agree a little with him, and he is certainly gaining steam/collecting momentum.
In my opinion he needs to rethink his approach, not be so rude, and rethink the value of the spectacle he’s creating. Is there a better way to get this message out? is my question. I suppose so, just by watching the movie, taking away the main message but filtering out all the other stuff and not thinking you are better than anyone else because you spend less…